During his coaching career, Kernaghan has managed Scottish clubs Clyde and Dundee, and Glentoran in the Northern Irish league, which he resigned from after an embarrassing 3-2 defeat to struggling Championship side Annagh United. He has also worked for other clubs in a variety of coaching roles.

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Club career

Born in Otley, West Yorkshire, England, he moved with his family to Bangor, County Down at the age of four. Kernaghan represented Northern Ireland at schoolboy level and the Republic of Ireland at senior level. Kernaghan began his playing career as an apprentice at Middlesbrough, and went on to make 212 appearances during an eight-year period, scoring 16 goals.

In September 1993, Kernaghan was signed for Manchester City by then-boss Brian Horton. He went on loan to various clubs—Bolton Wanderers in 1994, Bradford City in 1996, and then to St Johnstone in 1997. The Saints signed him on a permanent deal just before the end of the year, after he was given a free transfer from Manchester City. He enjoyed four years at McDiarmid Park, making 60 league appearances and scoring five goals.
Kernaghan then joined Brechin City, but he made only three competitive appearances for the club. He then moved to Clyde, where he started as a player but was promoted to a player/manager role in the 2003–04 season. He guided Clyde to a second-placed finish in the First Division, behind Inverness Caley Thistle, a division which they led for the majority of the season. Kernaghan made 63 appearances for Clyde as a player, scoring three goals.

His next move was to Livingston as assistant manager to Allan Preston.[3] Kernaghan was on a player/assistant manager role at the club, making four first team appearances for Livingston, but he was sacked along with Preston after a poor run of results.[3] Kernaghan next moved to Falkirk, where he took up a player/coach role. He made nine appearances for the Bairns but left the club on 2 September 2005.

International career

Brought up in Bangor, Northern Ireland, he played for Northern Ireland Schoolboys six times. However, as the Irish Football Association policy at the time did not select players who were not or whose parents were not born in Northern Ireland, he wasn't selected for the senior team.[4][5] Due to his grandmother being an Irish citizen he was entitled to Irish citizenship, and he was selected by Jack Charlton to play for the Republic of Ireland. Kernaghan earned 22 caps,[2] scored one goal and was selected for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Managerial and coaching career

He left Falkirk to take up the role as manager of Dundee. He was removed from the position, after an unsuccessful spell, in April 2006. Kernaghan became the first former Republic of Ireland player to hold a coaching role at Rangers.[4] He left this position in February 2012 to join Brentford.[6] Kernaghan made an appearance as a player during a 2013/14 pre-season friendly versus FC Einheit Rudolstadt, replacing Aaron Pierre after 65 minutes.[7] He left Brentford in December 2013, after new manager Mark Warburton decided to make changes to the club's coaching staff.[8]
Kernaghan was appointed manager of Glentoran in November 2015.[9] Losing to Annagh United in the League Cup on 30 August 2016 was the final game in charge for Kernaghan, he then tendered his resignation after the game.